The politician also insisted she had never called Mr Campbell a “homophobe”, telling the court: “This whole case is about that one tweet.”

Mr Campbell is suing Ms Dugdale, 37, for defamation over a column she wrote in the Daily Record on 7 March 2017, referencing his “homophobic tweets”.

The tweet at the centre of the controversy, made during the Conservative Party conference on 3 March that year, states: “Oliver Mundell is the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner.”

Mr Campbell, 51, from Bath, has denied it was a homophobic reference to Scottish secretary David Mundell being gay and described it as “satirical criticism” of Scottish Conservative MSP Oliver Mundell’s public speaking skills.

Giving evidence on the second day of a civil proof at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Ms Dugdale said the tweet had been reported “all over” the printed media and that there was “quite a hostile reaction” to it.

“I think a lot of people considered the tweet to be homophobic and to be offensive,” she said.

Roddy Dunlop, representing Ms Dugdale, asked the MSP about her own view of the tweet at the centre of the case.

She replied: “I consider it to be homophobic.”

Ms Dugdale continued: “Because it considers gay people to be lesser because, in the view of the person who tweeted it, they can’t have children or don’t have children. That is factually incorrect.”